Freitag, 29. März 2013

Sabres Schedule Wallpaper -April 2013-


Hey Guys and Girls,

here is the new wallpaper for the month of April. Since the chances are pretty good, that this will be the last Sabres Schedule Wallpaper until october, I thought I gotta honour Thomas Vanek for his great season.



Thomas Vanek - Sabres Wallpaper april 2013
1920 x 1200



Thomas Vanek - Sabres Wallpaper april 2013
1920 x 1080


Cellphone Wallpaper


IPhone - Older generation
320 x 480



IPhone - Newer generation
1136 x 640


Google Nexus 4
1280 x 768

Donnerstag, 21. März 2013

Let’s talk about rebuild baby


The 2012/2013 NHL season, which actually is a 2013 NHL season only, has passed mit midway point and the Sabres aren’t looking like a team that is going to ride a bus through Buffalo come june in order to present a big trophy. In the past 2 years the Sabres started good, continued terrible and finished strong. This year it’s not really the case.

I really thought that I would never say that, but I have reached the “hopefully they lose every game” point. Not because I hate the team, not because I wanna see them get crushed out there, no, it’s because I want a high draft pick. In this years NHL Entry Draft, there are at least 3 players who could have an impact on an NHL team right away. MacKinnon, Jones and Drouin. I want one of those 3 players in a Sabre sweater next year. And the biggest chance to get one of these, is finished somewhere in the area of 30th place.

I don’t wanna say the Sabres need a fresh start, but they have to change many things to be a contender. They added grit to the team prior to this season, however it didn’t really pay off. So let’s take a look at the Sabres Roster as of now. I will focus on the “bigger players.”


Unrestricted Free Agents
Robyn Regehr, Jordan Leopold, Adam Pardy, Jochen Hecht, Alexander Sulzer, John Scott

Here is what I would do. The Sabres gotta find a way to trade Regehr and Leopold. Apparently there have been scouts from LA watching a lot sabres games lately and Regehr seems to be the main target. If you can move Regehr for a pick and maybe a player that would be a great deal  for Buffalo.

Interesting side-note.  Jordan Nolan is a prospect of the LA Kings. Nolan? Yes it’s the son of former Sabres Coach Ted Nolan.

Jordan Leopold should be moved as well. Let’s hope for a pick in return here.

Adam Pardy could be resigned but same goes for Sulzer. Sulzer could be the cheaper DMen and is very reliable as well.

Jochen Hecht and John Scott will not wear a Sabres uniform next year. I wish the Sabres would find a job for Hecht somewhere in the organization. He has been a hated player this year but people should not forget what he did for this franchise.

Restricted Free Agents
Cody Hodgson, Mike Weber, Luke Adam, Brian Flynn, Corey Tropp, Jhonas Enroth

Sabres need to resign Hodgson, however I hope the GM is able to hammer down a deal that makes sense for both sides. I am hoping for a 2 or 3 year deal for Hodgson around 7.5 for 2y or 10.5 for 3y. Everything above that would be overpayment. Hodgson had a great season so far but don’t forget by the end of this season he still only has 139 NHL games and something around 75-80 points.
In January 2009 Jordan Staal signed a contract with Pittsburgh as his Entry Level  Contract was about to expire. He signed a 4y deal worth 16 million dollar with a cap hit of 4mio dollar.
At that point, Staal had 204 games  NHL for 91 points. At that point he was already a very good all-around forward, something you can not say about Hodgson yet. Staal was even nominated for the Selke Trophy along with Pavel Datsyuk and Ryan Kesler, which is awarded annually to the best defensive forward in the league. So if Staal got 4 million at that point, there is no way they should pay Hodgson much more.
Give Hodgson a 2 or 3 contract and reward him with the big contract after that.

Mike Weber should be resigned as well. Currently has a cap hit of 950k. Reasonable for a new contract would be a cap hit that is somewhere around 1.0 – 1.5 million dollar.

Luke Adam will probably a part the Sabres would like to throw into a deadline deal. He has no future in Buffalo.

Flynn, Tropp and Enroth should all be resigned as well. Tropp and Enroth could be both in the same area as Weber.

Free Agency
I have 3 main targets for this years Free Agency.

Ryan Clowe, Rob Scuderi and David Clarkson.

Ryan Clowe has not scored this year but still is a nasty forward like Steve Ott. He still has a scoring upside and could be a nice fit in Buffalo.

Rob Scuderi has won 2 cups with LA and Pittsburgh. This guy could be the veteran the Sabres need on D if they trade Regehr and Leopold.

David Clarkson, is a big forward that has improved his offensive skills a lot in the past. Can you imagine a line of Clowe-Ott-Clarkson in Buffalo. They would be the fan facourite line from day 1.
Another player I would trade away is Nathan Gerbe. However his value might not be that high at the moment so maybe he needs to be waived after this season.

However it is likely that San Jose and th Devils will try to sign their players or trade them. Especially since the Devils don't wanna lose another player for nothing, like Parise last summer.

If that's the case, Sekera could be in the mix as well.

2013 Entry Draft
My Main Target is Jonathan Drouin. This kid has put up insane number sin the QMJHL and continued to do so, even when Nathan MacKinnon was injured. So he isn’t just feeding of him, he creates fantastic plays himself.

My 2013/2014 Sabres Team:

LW
Vanek, Thomas
6.400.000
RW
Pominville, Jason
5.500.000
LW/RW
Leino, Ville
4.000.000
C
Grigorenko, Mi.
925.000
LW/C
Ott, Steve
3.200.000
C/LW
Ennis, Tyler
3.062.000
C
Hodgson, Cody
3.500.000
RW
Kaleta, Patrick
1.250.000
LW
Foligno, Marcus
900.000
RW
David Clarkson
4.000.000
LW
Clowe, Ryan
2.000.000
LW
Jonathan Drouin
925.000
C
Kevin Porter
900.000
RW
Tropp, Corey
1.500.000
D
Myers, Tyler
6.000.000
D
Ehrhoff, Christian
4.000.000
D
Sekera, Andrej
1.750.000
D
Weber, Mike
1.500.000
D
Pysyk, Mark
900000
D
Scuderi, Rob
3.000.000
D
Sulzer, Alexander
725000
G
Miller, Ryan
6.250.000
G
Enroth, Jhonas
1.500.000
Salary Cap
63.687.000

2013/2014 Lineup

Vanek-Hodgson-Pominville
Drouin-Grigorenko-Leino
Clowe-Ott-Clarkson
Foligno-Ennis-Kaleta/Tropp

Myers-Erhoff
Sekera-Weber
Scuderi-Pysyk
McNabb-Sulzer

Miller-Enroth